We live in a world where spin is king. Whoever controls the message controls the debate. It's one of the dictums of life whether it be in your relationships at work, with friends, lovers, family or in the world of politics.
As much as I knock conservatives in general and Republicans in particular on this site, I have to give it up to them, they are masters at message crafting and distribution. The dissemination of concise talking points on a variety of topics from national to local parties and activists is achieved in machine-like precision and is the envy of partisans and pundits alike.
Or rather was, until the message system imploded following their losses in the 2006 and 2008 elections as well as the mountain of reliable, verifiable information that directly refuted their original claims. The machine is now sputtering along, still producing talking points that are repeated endlessly on the floor of Congress, Sunday morning talk shows, Fox News, and AM talk radio but don't have nearly the results they once had.
However, now that the Republican party is talking only to their diminishing base, the darker, more sinister rumors have started flourishing and getting regurgitated from the halls of power to the coffee shops. Below are the top 5 myths being circulated by the Republicans and the right-wing messaging machine.
1. Obama was born in Kenya and cannot legally hold the office of President
This is the big one of the moment and has been repeated and emailed within the conservative circle of influence for months. It was even cited as a reason for rebellion by James von Brunn, who shot up the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago, killing a guard (Stephen Johns) in the process.
The rumor started not long into Obama's 2008 stretch of the campaign when it became clear that he would triumph over Clinton in the Democratic primaries. It was debunked a few weeks later when the campaign released the certificate to independent experts to examine as well as a scanned copy to the Internet.
The experts confirmed the authenticity of the certificate while those who relied solely on the Internet version stated that it was a fake, noting that there wasn't a seal on the copy (which only faintly showed up on the scanned version since Hawaii at the time placed their seal on the back of such documents).
This has led to a fringe movement within conservative circles (who call themselves "birthers") who claim Obama never released the long form of his birth certificate and can therefore not be eligible to hold the office. Some have even tried to sue their way into federal court over the issue, only to be instantly rebuffed (one such case in Missouri is preparing to file their claim in early July).
2. Republicans understand the average joe / Democrats are elitists
Generally considered a meme that raises its head every once in a while on Fox, the idea of the "Volvo-driving latte liberal", too concerned with their own petty needs to be concerned about those of the regular joe is an older one but one that rears its head every once in a while.
Its most recent and most popular refutation came just recently in the form of a tweet from Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) when he typed "Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House". With that one tweet, Hoekstra started a micro-movement on the Internet that takes mundane events and inflates them to outrageous proportions.
Some of my favorites from the site Hoekstraisameme are: "I saw some scantily clad teenagers form a pyramid. It was just like being in Abu Ghraib", or "I just lost a game of Jenga. Now I know what it was like to be there at 9/11", or "My toilet just overflowed a little. Now I know how the Indonesian Tsunami victims felt."
3. Obama is a socialist
In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I do not think that word means what you think it does". Obama is not a socialist. He's a moderate Democrat who leans left on a variety of social issues. Nothing in his speeches, policy proposals, or goals of his Presidency espouse wanting to destroy capitalism or move production or distribution of goods to the ownership of the community. What he does want to do is eliminate the "casino capitalism" that awards bonuses to executives who take unnecessary risks or commit outright fraud to line their own pockets. If that's socialism, then sign me up.
4. Mainstream media is biased towards a liberal point of view
This was started almost 30 years ago by conservatives as they saw their influence in public debate begin to diminish following the Nixon scandal and Vietnam and didn't really catch steam under the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s. Sadly, this is also a lie. Cable news outlets may have anchors that lean one way or another on the political spectrum, but the companies themselves are part of large transnational corporations that are interested in profit and keeping their shareholders happy.
It's hard to do that when your employees are muckraking greedy politicians and companies that can help your bottom line. Now I'm not saying they exert overt editorial control (unless it's Fox News, who act just like Robert Greenwald's excellent documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism), but it's made clear through career advancements and story assignments how and what stories get covered.
Media Matters for America conducted a study concerning the concentration of conservative versus progressive guests espousing certain ideological beliefs who appear on their weekly panel segments. They discovered it tilted heavily in favor of conservative ideology. On NBC's Meet the Press it was 21% to 14%. On ABC's This Week it was 35% to 5% and on CBS's Face the Nation it was 20% to 0%.
5. Republicans are the moral leaders of this country
As I'm typing this, I'm watching the press conference of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admit to the world that his hiking trip to the Appalachian Mountains was really a trip to Argentina to see his lover during his two week separation from his wife so they can try and put their marriage back together again.
This is about a week after Nevada Senator John Ensign admitted to an affair with the wife of a member of his staff, which was a couple of years after Larry Craig's conviction of soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom, which was a year and a half after Louisiana Senator David Vitter got into some trouble for screwing hookers instead of his wife, approximately two and a half years after the Rep. Mark Foley scandal in which he sought sex with underage male pages and about three years after conservative icon Rush Limbaugh was arrested for illegal drug use.
Can we please put these canards to bed rest now?
User Comments / Add a Comment »
do you realize that social security is a ponzi scheme? bernie madoff just got a 150 years for what he did. as far as the gov't running thing better than a private firm, that was the funniest thing i have seen/heard on this site in a while. have you actually worked with the fed gov't. i did and still do. i am a contractor to them, do you know why, because the gs -14 step 9, with the it increase in pay ($112 k per year) i work for cannot do their job. guess what? she was so incompitent, she was promoted to a step 10 and transfered! the gov't sucks at doing anything unrelated to the military.
Added: 143 days ago by 1adude
ok, i didn't mention social security in the piece, but i'll bite. no, it's not a ponzi scheme and has absolutely nothing to do with madoff. it's one of the most effective, longest running programs ever created by the federal govt in an effort to provide a safety net for some of the most disadvantaged groups in our society, the elderly. there is report after report that will confirm that. your contention that private industry is somehow better able to handle the health care of americans is pretty hard to defend considering the health care crisis this country has been in for decades now. private companies are in business to make a profit and make their shareholders happy. the client comes second, or third or farther down the list. by the way, not to get off topic here, but you're convinced that obama is the worst thing to happen to the american people and that he's a kenyan muslim socialist out to destroy the country through the massive redistribution of income, then why work for it. you sir, have an odd career choice.
Added: 143 days ago by mardod
ehhh i think we can all agree that when the government takes on anything it ends creating red tape, will come in over budget, and generally wont function in the way it was intended (i.e. social security,medicare,welfare). if we can agree with that then why would we want them to take on one more part of our public sector utilizing tax dollars we work hard for? i won't feel guilty because i can tell my daughter "it wasn't me" when she asks why we elected a rookie senator with no executive experience and with a questionable past based on the mtv generation thinking he was cool, he was black, and had the awesome message of hope and change to the highest office in the nation. then let him hijack major parts of the economy with his congressional majority and pass the bill for it to her generation. so now i have liberals lecturing me on the definition of socialism and putting marx in the proper context. comprehending the effect of these policies on real people trumps your ability to employ your dictionary or recall your lib college professors rants on marx, but by all means continue through life using your superior intellect and awe inspiring logic because the world wouldn't be able to continue without your ability to navigate a dictionary and post your intuitive analysis on kontraband. in summary i will coin a term not in your dictionary or thesaurus, failocrat.
Added: 144 days ago by midgetcrime
for point 4, i agree that conservatives have their fair share of mainstream media. in addition, chat radio is very well dominated by conservatives.
Added: 144 days ago by raccoon_ninja
okay let me put it this way so that everyone can understand. this article crushed on the republican party (the "conservative" party in america) when you just could've easily bashed the democratic party (the just as conservative party as the republicans). let's face it fellow americans, our politicians are equally corrupt, neither has any moral ground over another. we have the rep.'s fighting to overturn roe v. wade and at the same time advocating the use of capital punishment all the while, the dems. are doing the mirror opposite. wake up: obama isn't a great politician but he isn't a socialist (i know the "spread the wealth" comment, but in actions he isn't so :p) he is an american born citizen, and he was just as qualified and as desirable for president as the rep. runner up (not at all imho) so quit whining about the rhetoric of the incompetent individuals we vote into office and start actually facilitating change.
tl;dr: stfu
Added: 144 days ago by Dmoneater
well put, dmoneater.
Added: 144 days ago by Moovamoova
i must say to whoever the socialist genius was that wrote this drivel.........bulls**t ! open your eyes and look what he had done, not what has been said. mr. obama is trying to strip us of our rights, our privleges, and the american way of life. he caters to our enemies, disrespects our allies, and pisses on the military. as for his birth certificate, if anyone does his/her homewrok the certificate that has been presented is a clever forgery or fraudulenty issued. i don't know where he was born, but until he furnishes a valid certificate of birth, i feel he is not the president of this great nation. and until he acts like a true american he can take his liberal muslum garbage back to whatever sludgehole he crawled out of. be educated , bot a liberal intellectual stunted moron !
Added: 144 days ago by troll
i was going to write a rebuttal , but then i saw your username and decided not to feed the troll.
Added: 144 days ago by raccoon_ninja
i read your post to the end: "liberal muslum garbage" and it made me rage for two reasons.... than i saw what u did thar...
Added: 144 days ago by Dmoneater
i loves me some birther rage. rock on dead-ender!
Added: 144 days ago by mardod
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